


Choppin

by Skeletears



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/F, This took a while because it was a wild ride lemme tell you, Wow this is longer than I thought, a gay mess, headcanons? me?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 08:39:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15882507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skeletears/pseuds/Skeletears
Summary: Mysterious firewood, Flora, Rinkah, Fluff.Man, you know what we're here for.





	Choppin

Flora had noticed something. She had gotten up to prepare for the day, earlier than most of course, and she had spotted the large firewood pile that had sprung up next to the mess hall. Now she knew her sister wasn’t allowed around the splitting maul, Jakob was a bit of a princess when it came to these things, and frankly she usually had to bribe others to help her out, so the large amount of firewood was odd. It was very convenient as well, which was a nice side effect, but Flora couldn’t help but be curious.

 

“Did you notice anything odd this morning?”

“Eh?”

Flora continued to remain focused on the tea she was pouring. Corrin looked at her cautiously as they took their seat.

“It’s nothing of concern of course.”

She placed the teapot down.

“Did you get a haircut? Or is that a new mob-cap?”

Flora stopped, puzzled a moment before she realized what they were saying.

“No, not about me. There was an unusually large pile of firewood I found this morning. I was wondering if you knew anything about it.”

“Oh!” Corrin laughed, “That was Rinkah. She said something about wanting to do something but not wanting to talk to others? You know how she is. And hey, she is really good at hard labour.”

Flora nodded. So that’s who it was. And unfortunately she did know how Rinkah got. Flora didn’t think it was quite right for her to close herself off so much, even Flora herself put up with the socials. But something in her told her to go investigate further.

 

_ THUNK _

The splitting maul embedded itself deep into the wood, caught on a knot. Rinkah brought it back up again,  _ CRACK _ slamming it down a second time to finally break through the rest of the log. It looked to be the sixth log today. Flora approached warily. She wasn’t sure how close she should get and was a little worried about accidents. Rinkah wiped sweat from her brow, which was no surprise with how hot and humid it was out, even for her. Rinkah grabbed another log.

“Ah! Uhm.”

Rinkah turned to look at her, setting the log in place.

“You alright?”

“I wasn’t sure how to get your attention with all the noise you were making.”

Rinkah studied her face.

“Do you want something from me?”

Wait, why did she get her attention.

“I… I was just going to thank you for your work! It was nice to already have a stockpile ready for chores.”

Rinkah scratched her arm silently then turned back to her work.

“You’re welcome.”

Flora dashed off a little embarrassed. It’s not like she didn’t have work to be attending to, why was she doing this?

  
  


Rinkah was back again. This time Flora was prepared.

“You came back.”

“Yes, and I thought your axe needed sharpening. I brought you a whetstone.”

Rinkah picked up the wood maul and ran her finger over the blade. She looked over to Flora and looked as if she was thinking.

“Come here.”

Flora was a bit confused, but Rinkah gestured with her head to come over there.

“I don’t know what you want if you don’t say it-”

“This kind of axe should be duller than normal, feel.”

She had her hand. Oh. Flora tried to focus on the blade of the axe under her fingers. It was rough and blunt, like she thought.

“You should only sharpen it when it bounces too often, and Charlotte taught me to use a file instead. More particular. You’d like it.”

Rinkah looked into her eyes looking for something. Her hand was rough in a nice way. And what kind of axe?!

“Why don’t you sharpen it then?”

Flora withdrew a bit. Her hands were already too warm in the afternoon air.

“You use force. Stand a little further.”

She backed up as Rinkah swung up the maul to almost above her head, and dragged it down out of the air, cracking down into the grain of the wood. It was a full torso movement, her back muscles and biceps in full movement. Flora snapped out of that as fast as she could. She wasn’t a schoolgirl.

“I see. Don’t you get tired doing this?”

“Not really.”

Flora sat down in silence for a while, watching Rinkah. She kind of wanted to be this strong. Rinkah was unfazeable and she was so tough. Flora felt a tad like a china figure next to her.

“How do you become strong?”

“You are.”

Flora looked up, surprised that Rinkah had stopped to respond.

“Flora, you have the will of a wild beast. You will fight till the death and no further.”

“But I am not strong.”

Rinkah walked and sat in front of her.

“There is nothing stronger than defending your home. Whether it be your sister, or your tribe, you would fight.”

“But Felicia is-”

“She is weak in conviction. And annoying.”

“Pffbt!”

Flora tried to keep in her surprise over this sudden confession.

“She is still my sister you know!”

Rinkah looked irritated, “I cannot stand when she decides to tell me all about her new books or the rock she saw the other day.”

Oh, how could she not laugh at that.

“Is that your true weakness Rinkah? Mindless babble?”

Rinkah glared at her, making her laugh further. She wasn’t one to laugh, but she felt so relaxed at this point, did it even matter? Flora stood and reached out her hand to Rinkah. Rinkah took it and hauled herself up, catching Flora as she stumbled back.

“You know… Flora. I’d like it if you joined me for dinner.”

Flora was a little surprised. Then again why would she pass this up?

“I would be delighted to join you.”

Rinkah let go of her hand and uncomfortably crossed her arms.

“Alright then. Dinner.”

She turned and got back to work. Flora didn’t really know what to do with herself either so she just wandered off, hoping Corrin would give her something to do.

  
  


“Wait!”

Flora turned to the sound. Rinkah motioned her to follow as she led her back around to the kitchen entrance. She knocked.

“Orochi is on kitchen duty so I got her to help us. She’s fantastic at food things.”

Flora wondered where she got that impression, though then again when was Orochi ever on kitchen duty? Orochi herself came out of the door bringing two covered plates and giving Rinkah a smile.

“Now you two kids better be home before dark. And leave the door open when you get back.”

Rinkah just grumbled to that and Orochi disappeared back into the kitchen with her signature laugh.

“I thought we’d go someplace nice to eat.”

Flora was surprised further. She hadn’t realized Rinkah would put this much effort into dinner. Maybe she should have dressed up? Rinkah reached out her hand again. Flora grasped it, hopefully not too quickly. She liked her hands. Flora was glad she had gotten a few excuses to hold them in the past few days, and now she was delighted to be led around by them. Rinkah walked her over to the wall surrounding their camp. It looked over the astral plane, the grass field surrounding went out farther than they eye could see. 

“The sun is about to set.”

Flora sat next to Rinkah, just barely brushing against her side. They were pretty quiet for the first couple of minutes. Flora wasn’t really sure what to say, but she didn’t mind.

“Thank you… for coming over to me. I liked talking.”

Flora turned herself to face Rinkah. Rinkah had set her mostly empty plate to the side and leaned back on her arms. Both women had their legs hung over the edge, swaying a bit but it was getting windy with the night.

“I liked it too. Though I was surprised you were so open, I had the impression that you weren’t the type to get along with others.”

“That was,” Rinkah paused, “I didn’t get along with a few people for sure. But I’ve learned it’s good to open yourself up. Sometimes.”

“Sometimes?”

Rinkah then looked straight into Floras eyes, about to say something but faltering a bit. They both looked away, and Flora really didn’t know why. Who was she kidding, they were just creeping around the point. She knew it was silly for two adults to act this way. But then again, she couldn’t. How could she? This wasn’t some kind of thing Felicia told her of, she wasn’t the kind of person to be in those kinds of stories. And here she was getting all work-

Rinkah draped her arm around and over Floras shoulders. Flora couldn’t help but tense in surprise, and Rinkah backed off immediately.

“Sorry.”

Flora gathered up everything she had inside and leaned against Rinkah and pulled her arm back around.

“I was only surprised, Rinkah. It seems you are as bad at communication as I thought.”

Rinkah looked at her skeptically, “You aren’t any better.”

  
  


_ CRACK _

“You need to take more breaks, we have battles to fight.”

“You take too many breaks.”

“Well, because of that I have water for you.”

Rinkah grinned and sat next to Flora, graciously taking the jug of water.

“I’m glad I can see you though.”

“Oy, with those kinds of lines you’re only going to embarrass yourself.”

“I know.”

Rinkah leaned over to give her a lil kiss.

That left Flora a little blushing disaster.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a mess but I can't even care.  
> What did this start out as? No idea. Did it evolve into a gay mess? Dang sounds like my autobiography.  
> Anyway I refuse to defend myself further.  
> I feel like we really lost out on Rinkah, as she could have been way more ripped and that's a dreamboat right there. But I'm not lying to myself Fates did everyone dirty. Anyway I'm totally going to be putting out more bs with this pair because I live my life my way.


End file.
